Garment-clasp.



PATENTED SEPT. 1, 1908..

J. M. SINER.

GARMENT CLASP.

APPLIUATION FILED snr1:.2a,19o7.

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JOHN M. SINER, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

GARMENT-CLASP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 1, 1908.

Application filed September 28, 1907. Serial No. 394,978.

T 0 all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that l, JOHN M. SINER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful lmprovenients in Garment-Clasps, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to garter or garment clasps and is particularly designed for more or less delicate fabrics such as stockings, which are liable to be torn or injured by many ordinary forms of clasp in common use. The present invention is intended to overcome this difficulty, and further provide a clasp which grips the stocking or garment with great security, and which can be very easily disengaged when desired.

In some of its aspects the present invention is an improvement over the structure of my prior applications, Serial No. 347,327, and Serial No. 375,674. Among the Afeatures of improvement is the swinging link support for the main gripping member or lever, and which permits the insertion of the garment or stocking into the gripping jaw with greater facility. l also make the main frame member or backing plate of sheet metalinstead of wire, which is found advantageous for trade and other reasons, and l so construct the gripping lever with reinforcing ears that it is not liable to become bent or broken by any strains applied to it.

With these purposes and objects in view, my invention consists in the features ofvconstruction and combination, as hereinafter set forth and claimed.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a front or plan view of a garment clasp embodying the principles of my invention Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the same Fig. 3 is a similar view showing the clasp in open relation; Fig. 4 is a front view of the clasp applied to a piece of fabric; Fig. 5 is a transverse section of the same.

Referring to the drawings in which like parts are designated by the same reference sign, 1 indicates the main frame member or plate of the clasp and which has a transverse perforation at its upper end to receive the usual strap 3 of a garter or similar device.

4 indicates an opening or jaw at the lower end of the plate 1 and which cooperates with a gripping lever hereinafter described. Between the openings 2 and 4, the plate 1 has additional openings 5 and 5 to lighten the construction and through which fabric or webbing may be threaded, as later described.

6 indicates a turned-over portion of the plate 1 at a point adjacent to the perforation 2, and which constitutes an eye 'forming a pivot joint.

`The lower extremity of the plate or member 1 which surrounds the jaw 4 is deflected or inclined forwardly as clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 3, and the upper end containing the opening 2 may be similarly deliected in a forward direction, in order that the fabric connections and webbing may be more symmetrically distributed with respect to the body of the clasp.

It is obvious that the width of the plate or member 1 at its upper end where it is joined to the elastic garter strap may be of any size required, corresponding to the width of the garter strap material used.

7 designates what l shall term the gripping lever having a hooked lower end 8 rounded at its extremity 9 and at a portion 1() constituting the base of the hook. The hooked portion of the gripping lever 7 is adapted to enter the jaw 4 of the plate or member 1 and bear against the lower side thereof with its rounded surface 10.

1 1 indicate integral ears deflected from the material of the gripping lever .7 at a point closely adjacent to the hook 8, so as to support and stiffen said hook and prevent any reakage which might result from the strains applied to the sharply bent portion of the sheet metal at 10. These ears 11 also serve an additional function as pivot or fulcrum connections, being perforated with holes or openings 12 at their extremities for this puraose. l 13 indicates a wire or other suitable link joining the holes 12 of the ears 11 with the eye 6 previously described. l prefer to construct the link 13 in the form of a loop, the two side portions 18 of which are separated a less distance than the width of the upper extremity of the gripping lever 7. These portions 13 of the link 13 may also be deliected slightly forward adjacent to the eye 5. In this way, they constitute an advantageous support for the upper extremity of the gripping lever, maintaining it in a position where it can be easily grasped by the lingers in releasing the clasp.

A form of webbing employed to cover the metallic parts and prevent their contacting with the skin when the device is used as a CII garter clasp, is particularly shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

14 indicates a strip passed through the opening 5 and the jaw 4 and having one of its ends 15 deflected over and sewed to the garter strap or connection 3. The material of the piece 14 may be ordinarily non-elastic cloth or fabric, since this serves no other function than that of covering the metallic parts.

The operation is as follows: It being desired to engage the fabric of a stocking or garment, the uplper extremity of the gripping lever 7 is pul ed outward thus swinging the gripping lever together with the link 13 widely outward and away from the jaw 4. The relation of the parts at this time is indicated in Fig. 3. It is evident that the freely swinging link construction 13 permits a wide or extended movement of the gripping lever away from its aw, so that it is very easy to insert a piece of fabric in a position to be engaged or clasped. It is now merely necessary to push the gripping lever 7 toward the jaw 4, in a longitudinal or endwise direction, so that the hook S engages the fabric and pushes it through the jaw 4 of the member 1. If the lever 7 is now pressed inward and upward, so as to lie flat against the main plate or member 1, as indicated in Fig. 5, the fabric will be pushed downward ovei the lower edge of the aw v4 and tightly bound thereagainst by the rounded portion 10 of the gripping lever. This pinching engagement at this point is, however, incidental, and of less importance in the gripping action than the virtual kink or bight which is taken in a large multitude of the threads or strands of the fabric, which are twice bent sharply back upon themselves in the manner shown in Fig. 5. Taking this double kink or bight in a large multitude of lthe fabric strands or threads, and additionally pinching them at one or more points, gives an engagement of such great security, that no ordinary strains applied to the stocking or garment will dislodge itin the slightest degree.

Inasmuch as almost all the injury ordinarily done by garter clasps results not from direct engagement, but by slipping or pulling of an insufficiently secured fastening, it is evident that such injury is largely or wholly overcome by the present device. In other words, a fabric engaged by a clasp will ordinarily tear or become injured more readily if the clasp engagement is not absolutely tight, than if it is absolutely tight and secure, because a slipping engagement allows the entire strain to come on the single point which happens to offer the greatest resistance, and the strain localized in this way at a single point is liable to tear out the fabric. l regard the double bight or kink in the fabric secured by the present invention, as particularly advantageous on this account.

What l claim, is

1. A garment clasp comprising a member having a jaw, a gripping lever formed of sheet metal with a hookedextremity, and having integral ears defiected therefrom at apoint adjacent to such hooked extremity, whereby the latter is stiffened, and a flexible connection between said member and said lever.

2. A garment clasp comprising a sheet metal member having a turned-over portion at its upper end forming an eye and having an opening forming a aw at its lower end, a gripping lever hooked at its lower end and having reinforcing ears adjacent said hooked portion and abutting thereagainst, and a swinging link joining said eye to said reinforcing ears.

In witness whereof, l subscribe my signature, in the presence of two witnesses.

JOHN M. SINER..

Witnesses:

A WALDO M. CHAPIN, JAMES, DANTONIO. 

